


Sharp dressed man

by DeadlyWeiss



Category: Night at the Museum (Movies)
Genre: Established Relationship, Halloween, Historical Dress, M/M, Mid-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-28
Updated: 2020-10-28
Packaged: 2021-03-08 00:54:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,456
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26766853
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DeadlyWeiss/pseuds/DeadlyWeiss
Summary: When Larry explains that it's customary for people to dress up for Halloween, Octavius and Jedediah end up getting the exact same idea.
Relationships: Jedediah/Octavius (Night at the Museum)
Comments: 6
Kudos: 106
Collections: Trick or Treat Exchange 2020





	Sharp dressed man

**Author's Note:**

  * For [flowerdeluce](https://archiveofourown.org/users/flowerdeluce/gifts).



> I decided to do something slightly different for the clothing prompt, I hope you enjoy this take on it :)

Jedediah had to admit that when Gigantor— _Larry_ first explained to them the whole concept of modern Halloween, he didn’t think much of it. It sounded fun, sure, but the museum wasn’t lacking in parties now that he had given most of them free rein during the night, and a lot of the things he had mentioned sounded like the sort of bull crap that while requiring minimal adjustments for the giant-sized folks of the museum, would mean a huge amount of work for the miniature aisle to  
participate in. Octavius had paid more attention on account of not knowing much about the holiday in the first place, but afterwards he had agreed that the effort was better saved for some other occasion, and that had been that.

Well, for a while.

As the date drew closer and more and more decorations started showing up around the museum, it got harder to deny that everyone’s excitement had stared to rub off on him.

By the time the night in question arrived and Larry walked into the exhibit with what turned out to be a suitcase full of more or less appropriately-sized costumes, Jedediah was willing to admit that he had spent maybe a little too much time thinking exactly where the line between “endearing” and “I swear in the name of my deities whose name you still can’t pronounce that I won’t let you touch me again” lied for the purpose of pulling a prank on Octavius. 

“What’s all this about, Gigantor?”

Larry rolled his eyes, not bothering to correct him as he set the suitcase on the floor and opened it so everyone present could take a look inside.

“Well, you can’t exactly raid the storage for your costumes. Help yourselves, guys.” Larry was about to leave, but at the last second, he stopped instead. This time, he focused his attention on him and Octavius in particular. “I need to finish setting up the party. Can I trust you to do this in an _orderly_ way?”

“Order is the Roman Empire’s pride, Larry.”

“Yeah, what he said. We’ll behave.”

For a moment, Larry looked at them with a serious expression on his face, as if trying to determine in what ways leaving them alone with a bunch of clothes could go horribly wrong before deciding that either they couldn’t get in _too_ much trouble, or he simply had no time to stay and keep an eye on them for the whole thing even if he felt like he should.

Giving them one final look of warning, Larry then headed for the next exhibit.

Meanwhile, all of Jedediah’s plans regarding using the occasion to pull a prank on Octavius disappeared from his mind the instant he spotted a big, metal piece that looked almost exactly like the one Octavius usually wore poking from under a red cloth, replaced by how he imagined Octavius would look picking up his jaw from the floor after seeing him walk into the room dressed like a proper Roman.

“Octi, I should get back to the boys in case they need anythin’ before we set off.”

“I should do the same” Octavius did that thing where they were too much in public for a proper display of affection, so instead he just smiled and let his stare linger for a second too long. “I’ll see you at the party, Jed.”

And while he did head back to the spot where most of the others from Wild West diorama had gathered to discuss their plans for the night, what he actually did was grab the closest guy of roughly the same size as him and pulled him away from the crowd until he was sure that no one would accidentally overhear their conversation.

“I need ya to do me favor, pick a Roman armor and pretend it’s for ya. The boots, the fancy hat, the whole get up.”

“But why can’t ya get it yourself?”

“Because I don’t want Octavius to know it’s for _me_.”

* * *

Octavius had waited until after Jedediah had left to go through the clothing, excusing himself with the pretense that he had to help distribute it amongst the Romans intending to participate so there would be no complains about it being done in an unfair manner. 

The truth was that as soon as he had realized that amongst the clothes that Larry had brought for them, there were some that closely resembled the ones Jedediah’s people wore, it almost felt like he had been struck by divine inspiration. He knew Jedediah was planning _something_ , and though he wasn’t certain of the details, he was sure that whatever it was would be completely upstaged by him showing up in the kind of clothes that Jedediah insisted were the better ones.

He had, by Venus’s grace, undressed Jedediah more than enough times to have a rough idea of where everything should go and how it should look — the trousers gave him a brief pause as a small part of him still struggled with a lifetime of seeing them as nothing but barbarian garments, but once he pushed that thought out of his mind, getting through all the belts needed to hold both the trousers and the gun holster in place was more a matter of wanting to be thorough so nothing would fall off unexpectedly than it being particularly difficult.

As he finished putting on his gloves, Octavius lamented the lack of a proper mirror in his room, because he couldn’t help but wonder if he perhaps looked as much as Jedediah as the smell of leather and cotton made him feel.

“The carriage is ready, my liege.” He heard one of his men call from the hall.

“Perfect. I will be there in a moment.”

* * *

Jedediah knew for a fact that Octavius’ clothes were made up of several layers, and that they were altogether quite heavier than what he usually wore, but he hadn’t really thought about how those two things might influence his decision of wearing them until he had to call for help to tie the back of the armor pieces because goodness gracious, trying to keep big metal pieces in place without help wasn’t a skill that was learnt in an afternoon.

It was after the fourth or so try that he gave up and went to fetch the first person that wasn’t too busy getting ready and made way to the nearest available chair. It didn’t make the armor any lighter, but it did mean that the leg armor was surely secured to his shins in a matter of minutes.

“Yer ready, Jedediah.”

The other man got up first, then helped him get on his feet.

“So? How do I look?”

“Yer wearin’ a skirt.”

“It ain’t a skirt. It’s a—“ Octavius had told him the proper name of the thing about a hundred times, and now he was really wishing he had paid attention at least once. “It ain’t a skirt, alright?”

“Hmh.”

“Never mind. Go tell everyone else that we’re leavin’ in ten minutes.”

* * *

Generally speaking, Octavius considered smug bragging to be beneath him — that didn’t mean that he couldn’t _feel_ smug while he waited for Jedediah to show up, it just meant that he felt it quietly and with poise.

Not that it mattered much, because as soon as Jedediah finished climbing onto the desk, he was left speechless.

“Darn. Octi, is really it ya?”

Octavius had seen hundreds of men wearing that exact same uniform, but it wasn’t until then that he fully understood why Jedediah had had so many objections to it back when they had first met. Both the tunic and the _braccae_ underneath had very obviously been tailored for a shorter man, and even with the greaves, the amount of leg and thigh it showed whenever Jedediah took a step was very, very distracting; had he had any inclination towards prudishness, he would have wrapped Jedediah’s _paludamentum_ around him for the sake of modesty and carried him away.

As it was, he had enough mind to quickly tear away his eyes from Jedediah’s lower half, but from the way Jedediah was also very clearly enjoying what he was seeing, he couldn’t help retuning the smile.

“You’re wearing the _lorica_ wrong.”

“Well, pal, yer shirt could use some fixing, too.” Jedediah laughed as he slipped a finger under one of the leather straps holding his trousers in place and pulled him closer until they were within whispering distance of each other. “What do ya say we ditch the party and we go somewhere else? And ya can teach me how this lori—whatever’s supposed to be worn.”

“Only if you teach me how to properly undo these buttons.”

“Deal.”


End file.
